The standard, rural mailbox has a rectangular bottom panel and a U-shaped roof portion extending the length of the bottom panel. It has a back panel at one end and a door at the other end in the shape of the U-shaped roof portion. When removing mail from the conventional mailbox, the recipient must grope into the box to access the mail. If the recipient drives up to the box to retrieve the mail, they must usually extend their body through the vehicle window to get to the mail box. This is inconvenient and uncomfortable for the recipient, and can be dangerous in certain situations. If the brake in the recipient's car or truck is not properly applied, or the transmission accidentally disengages from “park” while the mail is being retrieved, the recipient is in a precarious position, hanging out the vehicle's window. Injury to the mail recipient and damage to the vehicle, the mailbox or surrounding property, are likely results of such a situation.
An improved mailbox with features providing easier access to the mail with would help in the above described scenario. Several prior patent references describe potential improvements to mailboxes, with the stated purpose of providing easier access to the contents within. However, all prior mailbox improvements of this type, so far reviewed, are either too complex, cumbersome, or in another way flawed in their attempt to provide a simple and easy access to the mailed contents within a standard or conventional mailbox.
The present invention is designed to overcome these limitations and provide an easy and full access to the mail within the mailbox. The invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.